A Town Without Claus
by TechnoFusion
Summary: Dipper and Mabel find themselves shipped off again to Gravity Falls, this time right before Christmas. Together the two of them find out the town's lack of holiday joy and the reasoning behind it, and decide they're going to make Christmas right again for the town. However, some things are easier said then done. Holiday fic; will likely update multiple times a week until Christmas.
1. Grim Start

It seemed like any old December day in Dipper and Mabel's hometown. The memories of the mysterious adventures of a quiet little Oregon town known as Gravity Falls had been behind the twins for a couple of months now, and while they hadn't told their parents the full extent as to what all they did there, it sure had been a bumpy ride.

While Mabel always saw on the bright side of everything and would likely go back in a heartbeat, Dipper definitely was happy to be back in his town where all his friends and most of his family were. Which is why he was a little bit disappointed when his parents sat the two of them down and delivered them some news.

"Your father just got a call from his boss. He's pushing a last-minute business trip on both of us." The twins' mom said, twirling her hair with a sigh.

"Like, when exactly?" Dipper questioned, not liking the tone of his mother's voice.

"December 21st through January 2nd."

_**"WHAT?!"**_

Dipper and Mabel both hopped out of their seats and yelled out in horror simultaneously.

"But that's..." Mabel started, her normally-happy face turning glum.

"...almost _all _of Christmas break." Dipper finished, the expression on his face now looking sorrowful as he let out a deep sigh. "So you mean you're both going to be missing Christmas?"

"No, no, don't think of it as 'missing Christmas'." The twins' father stated, forcing himself to smile. Dipper saw where Mabel got her optimistic nature from. "Think of it as simply 'delayed Christmas'. We can still unwrap presents and the like when we get back."_  
_

"Yeah, I guess...it just won't be the same, though." Mabel sighed, beginning to go into a Sweater Town-level depression at the thought of not being with her parents on Christmas. "But if you guys aren't here on Christmas, where are we gonna go?"

"We've already spoken with your great-uncle - you know, Grunkle Stan?" The twins' mom said, as the name brought a cringe down Dipper's spine. "He said he would have plenty of room for the two of you."

"Really? Grunkle Stan? Yay!" Mabel yelled, her optimism suddenly flooding back to her. Dipper simply groaned, which Mabel slugged him on the arm for. "Come on, Dipper, you don't like Grunkle Stan?"

"No, no, it's not that." Dipper replied. "I _like _Grunkle Stan. I just think it'll be weird spending Christmas with him is all..."

"Don't be such a downer, Dipper." Mabel teased, making some sort of raspberry sound with her mouth. "Sure, it's not as great as having Mom and Dad around for Christmas, but if Dad's gotta go on business, there's nothing we can do about it."

"Yeah, Dipper, why can't you be more like your sister when it comes to things like this?" The twins' dad questioned, looking at Dipper and speaking to him in a tone that made him very uncomfortable. Dipper knew that it was a good-natured statement, but he and his sister were two completely different people.

"Honey..." The twins' mom whispered to their father, realizing that Dipper was feeling uncomfortable. Their dad said nothing more as their mother continued on. "I'm sure you guys will have plenty of fun in Gravity Falls, and when you get back we'll all have plenty of fun together as a family."

"Tell ya what," The twins' father started, "how about when we get back we can build one of those big gingerbread castle kits?"

Mabel gasped in joy. "You mean the really expensive ones Mom never lets us buy?"

"Honey, I don't think-" The twins' mom started.

"Yes, of course!" The twins' father exclaimed, seemingly just as excited as Mabel was. Dipper and his mom seemed to be on the same side; that much money for something that'd be eaten whole in three days top just seemed silly.

After Mabel and her father got lost in their own conversation about giant gingerbread castles, the twins' mom let out a sigh and placed her hand on Dipper's shoulder.

"I'm really sorry about this, Dipper." Dipper's mom said to him in a low tone. "But hey, hopefully Santa will be able to find you in Gravity Falls and you'll get that nice detective kit you wanted, right?"

Dipper could tell she was forcing herself to smile, so he forced himself to smile back just so she'd feel a bit better. They both knew the situation sucked. Grunkle Stan was a total cheapskate, and would likely end up giving them toothpaste or something like that in their stockings.

Plus there was the whole Santa thing. As Dipper was starting to get a bit older, his belief in Santa was starting to slip a bit. Certain parts just weren't adding up; for example, how a big fat guy like Santa Claus managed to slip down their small chimney without waking the whole house up.

Dipper kept his disbelief a secret, though. It would only make Mabel think of him as even more of a fuddy-duddy, and it'd possibly have to make him accept the fact that he wasn't a kid anymore. So he pretended to believe fully in St. Nick, and simply let out a_"Yeah, hopefully..." _to his mother, still forcing himself to smile._  
_

The next three days were a blur to Dipper. These three days were the last days of school before winter break - but Dipper really had lost all interest in break. He'd only have a day and a half to relax at home, and then he'd be shipped off again.

Mabel, on the other hand, was bouncing off the walls, constantly revising her Christmas list, eating candy canes, and forcing the living room television to play nothing but made-for-television Christmas specials. At least Grunkle Stan wouldn't put up with that.

But as far as Dipper was concerned, this was going to be a very, very crummy Christmas. Grunkle Stan was likely coming up with some ridiculous Christmas-themed tourist trap that they'd all be slaving away at for weeks nonstop, and it simply wasn't going to feel like the holidays.

If only he had known what he knew later about Gravity Falls and Christmas time...

* * *

**A/N: And so begins our holiday fic, with Dipper having a bit of the case of the blues. However, I can promise that things will look up again for him in future chapters.**

**If you liked this chapter, please R&amp;R. It'd really make my day. See you all next time!**


	2. Arrival

The bus ride to Gravity Falls was entirely uneventful. Dipper buried his nose in one of those _Two-Minute Mysteries _books and found that embarrassingly it took him at least ten minutes to figure out most of the mysteries. Mabel, on the other hand, simply sat and twiddled her thumbs, trying to ignore Dipper's annoying shouts of "Wait, wait, no, **DON'T TELL ME I KNOW THIS -"**_  
_

However, as Mabel saw they were entering Gravity Falls, she noticed a sudden stop of all Christmas decorations around them. All the houses were entirely bare of any type of lights or decorations, and all the cheesy Christmas-themed billboards suddenly went back to regular cheesy billboards. She thought this was odd and tried to get Dipper's attention about it, but he was too lost in his mysteries to care.

Finally, when Dipper and Mabel arrived at their destination of the Mystery Shack, they both noticed that there were no sort of Christmas decorations up at the Shack whatsoever. Disappointing, but maybe it was just Stan being lazy...

As the two of them got out of the bus and entered the open door of the Shack, they didn't get any sort of a greeting or acknowledgement of their entrance. Instead, they heard a loud shout from the voice of their great uncle: _**"No, we do not have any Christmas promotions!"**_

Dipper and Mabel followed the voice into Stan's office, where Stan appeared to be having a loud argument with someone over the phone.

"Why? Shut up, that's why!" Grunkle Stan shouted, slamming the phone down and punching the table underneath him out of anger. "Ow."

It was then that Grunkle Stan saw his niece and nephew staring at him a tad bit bewildered.

"Oh, shoot, I, uh, totally forgot you guys were coming today." Grunkle Stan said, appearing a bit embarrassed as to the mood they had just caught him in. "Sorry about that. Nice to see you two knuckleheads."

"What was that about?" Mabel asked, coming closer to her grunkle for a hug.

As the two of them hugged, Grunkle Stan stated, "Oh, nothing, really. Just another idiot who thinks they can get me out of more profit. Luckily for me, Gravity Falls doesn't celebrate Christmas, so I don't recognize any special deals or give time off."

**"Wait, what?!" **

Dipper and Mabel had another moment of strange twin telepathy as the two of them shouted the above phrase out loud at Grunkle Stan at exactly the same time. It was actually pretty cool.

"What do you mean Gravity Falls doesn't celebrate Christmas?" Dipper questioned.

Grunkle Stan let out a deep sigh. "It's a long story, alright? Didn't you notice the fact that there's absolutely no decorations in this town for any of that junk? It just doesn't happen here."

"But _why?"_

"Yeah, tell us the story!" Mabel exclaimed.

"I'm not going to speak any more of it." Grunkle Stan said, placing his hand up. "Now, what do you kids want for dinner? They're having a special on frozen pizzas at the grocery store, but only if we get there in the next hour."

"Don't change the subject!" Dipper yelled, slamming his hands down on Stan's desk. "We want to know _why _there's no Christmas in Gravity Falls!"

"**BECAUSE THAT OLD, JOLLY FAT LOSER NEVER COMES TO VISIT US, THAT'S WHY!" **Grunkle Stan suddenly exploded, almost sending Dipper flying back in the air from the elevation of his voice. It was dead silent in the room for a couple of seconds.

"You mean Santa Claus?" Dipper asked in a low tone that seemed almost like whispering compared to Stan's outburst.

"Yeah, _Santa Claus." _Grunkle Stan repeated, spitting the man's name like it was some sort of curse word. "For hundreds of years Santa Claus has never visited Gravity Falls once."

"That's...that's awful!" Mabel exclaimed, with genuine concern in her voice. On the other hand, Dipper was simply confused by this whole situation. For a while now he had been starting to think that there was no Santa, and now suddenly here was a whole town not celebrating Christmas because Santa didn't come to them.

"Don't worry, Grunkle Stan," Mabel continued on, "this year Santa Claus is going to come to Gravity Falls no matter what!"

"Sorry, kid, I don't think you can do that." Grunkle Stan stated, with a sigh. "Kids like you who live here have tried to get in contact with him before, with no response. He simply refuses to deliver presents or answer any letters to here for some reason."

Mabel thought for a second. "Maybe someone did something really naughty a long time ago and the whole town's banned."

"No, no, this has been going on before even Gideon rolled into town. The founding fathers of Gravity Falls were actually pretty good people; there's no reason as to why they wouldn't have gotten gifts."

"Okay, this is ridiculous." Dipper interrupted. "I know there's no Santa Claus, so you can drop the act, Stan. Now what's the _real _reason as to why no one in this town celebrates Christmas?"

Mabel let out an over-the-top gasp at her twin brother, slugging him on the arm. "How...how could you say that, Dipper?!"

"I wish there was another reason." Grunkle Stan said, not making Dipper feel any better.

"No! It's not going to be like this!" Mabel shouted. "I'm going to get in touch with Santa Claus and make sure the good people of Gravity Falls get their gifts this year _no matter what!"_

* * *

**A/N: Ah, Mabel. Reckless, overly confident Mabel. Will she be able to snap the town into the Christmas spirit? And what's going on with all this Santa Claus jazz anyways? Stay tuned! (Or, uh,...scrolled, or...man, we really need a fanfiction equivalent of "stay tuned". "Stay updated", maybe?)**

**If you enjoyed this chapter, please R&amp;R. It'd really make my day! See you all next time!**


	3. Adding Up

"Just how on earth am I going to get in touch with Santa Claus?" Mabel grumbled, burying her face in her pillow and letting it sink in. "Blargh."

"Mabel, come on," Dipper started, walking over towards his distressed sister, "you can't honestly be thinking there's a way you're going to speak to Santa."

"Why are you always such a downer, Dipper?"

"I'm not a downer, I just have a bit more reality then the rest of you."

Dipper sighed, realizing that it was finally time to present something to Mabel he had been working on for a while now. He pulled out an unmarked journal from his backpack, and flipping through a bunch of pages of notes and scribbles, he finally reached a page of notes labeled _**Santa Evidence - AGAINST.**_

Mabel peered up from her pillow at what her brother was showing to her and gasped in horror.

* * *

**_The fastest reported moving automobile is 267 mph/hour. Even at this speed, there is no way one vehicle, with the added weight of presents and reindeer giving the possibility of severely weighing it down, could travel to every house on Earth in one night._**

**_No known species of reindeer has been reported to fly._**

**_It is impossible for one man to travel to the estimated 822.6 houses a second (source: Scientific Progress Magazine, p. 32) it would take for every good child to get their gifts on Christmas._**

**_The amount of force on the back of a 250-pound man from the load of presents would likely end up killing him in seconds._**

**_Parents seem to act very suspicious around this time, further proving to my hypothesis that Santa is simply a legend spread on by parents._**

**_That year we forgot to mail our letters - "Santa" somehow still knew what we wanted exactly._**

* * *

_"No..." _Mabel whispered in a low, upset tone.

"I'm sorry, Mabel, but I think this whole Santa thing could be just a myth." Dipper stated. He tried to place his hand on his sister's shoulder, but she pushed him away. "It just simply doesn't add up scientifically that-"

Mabel cut Dipper off by grabbing the notebook from his hands and fiercely ripping the page out of it. She shoved the page into her mouth and, much to Dipper's disgust, swallowed it whole. **_"POOP YOUR SCIENCE!"_**

Dipper sighed. "Mabel, there's actual _evidence _to this. You can't just ignore it all by saying-"_  
_

_**"POOP YOUR SCIENCE!"** _Mabel shouted again, kicking Dipper's journal out of his hands. She ran out of the room and slammed the door. Dipper tried to follow behind her and calm her down, but saw that she had locked herself in the bathroom.

"_I never wanna see you again, Dipper Pines!" _

"Mabel!" Dipper shouted in protest, pounding on the door once even though he knew it'd be no help. He let out a deep sigh and sat down in front of the door. "Why is it that she can't just _listen _to me?"

After sitting quietly with his thoughts for a while, Dipper finally heard a door open from a distance and the voices of his old friends Soos and Wendy enter the Mystery Shack.

"Mabel, Soos and Wendy are here!" Dipper exclaimed, with fake enthusiasm in his voice. It wasn't that he wasn't happy to see them, he just...ugh, it was complicated. "You gotta come out for them."

_"Do not." _Mabel hissed from the other side of the door. Man, she was really in a funk about this. Dipper decided to give up on Mabel for now and headed towards the front door where Soos and Wendy were.

"Hey!" Wendy greeted, waving at Dipper with a smile.

"Sup, dude?" Soos asked, holding his fist out to Dipper. "Bones it!"

After the two of them "bones'd it", Dipper noticed Soos and Wendy looking around curiously for the other twin.

"She's locked herself in the bathroom." Dipper explained. "It's a long story."

"Anything we can do to help?" Wendy asked, peering towards the bathroom. "What's she locked herself in for?"

Dipper sighed. "Well, I presented her with scientific evidence that Santa Claus wasn't real, considering how he never comes to Gravity Falls among other things, and Mabel won't even listen to my hypothesis long enough to decide if it's reasonable or not. But you guys know, right? Hehe."

It was silent for an awkward second or two.

"You mean...Santa's not real?" Soos questioned, with a hurt expression on his face. "Then who..."

"Uh, Dipper, don't joke around like that." Wendy stated flatly.

"_What?!" _Dipper exclaimed in shock. "But it all doesn't add up! Don't tell me the two of you-"

Wendy placed a finger over Dipper's mouth and shushed him, before whispering an order to him. _"Follow me."_

The two of them went back into the twins' room, leaving Soos behind to calm down later. Wendy closed the door behind them and began to speak again.

"Look, Soos still doesn't know that Santa Claus doesn't come to Gravity Falls." Wendy explained in a whisper. "His grandmother always labels some of his gifts _To: Santa _every year, and it'd break his heart at this point to-"_  
_

_"What?" _Dipper interrupted, whispering in the most shocked tone possible. "You mean we're still keeping this up? Why will no one just admit that there's no Santa?"

Wendy frowned. "But...why wouldn't there be a Santa, Dipper?"

"It doesn't _make sense! _Gosh, am I the only person around him with some common sense?"_  
_

"Dipper..."

"No, just go." Dipper said, placing his hand up at Wendy. "I need some time to think. Something about all of this is screwy, and I don't know what, but with the grave of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle as my witness, I will find out what!"

Wendy left the room without another word.

* * *

Three hours had passed. Mabel still hadn't come out of the bathroom - perhaps the longest refusal-to-associate-with-people strike that she'd ever been on in her life. Wendy and Soos tried to get her out a few times, but with no luck.

Dipper knew she had to come out at some point. Meanwhile, he was reviewing his notes over and over again, trying to find some sort of logical explanation for there being a Santa with all the contradictory evidence. Nothing.

Man, why did he always have to be the one to notice these things? Why couldn't he just accept things for what they are like everyone else without making a big mystery out of everything like a big weirdo?

No, everyone else were the weirdos. All the adults were simply in on an act together to keep Dipper and Mabel kids for as long as they could with all this 'Santa Claus' stuff.

Well, maybe Soos still honestly believed in Santa. Dipper sometimes wasn't sure if his mental age added up to his physical age.

At the last minute, Dipper found himself turning to a book he hadn't opened in a while: journal number three. He didn't really expect to find anything, but it was worth a shot.

As Dipper flipped and skimmed the pages, he didn't see anything catch his eye.

**_Zoom!_**

Dipper suddenly felt a sensation he had never felt before come across him as he zoomed through more pages. He quickly turned back. Something in his gut was telling him that he was missing something.

Finally, Dipper stopped on the "Gnomes" page. His eyes scrolled over it for a while, before looking down and noticing pen markings he had never noticed before.

_**Friends w/Santa Claus**_

Dipper did a double take. No matter how many times he blinked and pinched himself, the words on the page still appeared the same. He let out a pained groan.

"At least I know how to help Mabel now." Dipper muttered to himself. "But..._how?"_

* * *

**A/N: Seems like Dipper has learned to know better then to be a Scrooge now that he's found out the truth. How exactly is Santa Claus real? Why doesn't he come to Gravity Falls? Why am I asking you all these questions? Stay hooked for more!**

**As usual, R&amp;R highly requested. It'd really make my day! See you all next time!**


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